


you have made my life complete, and i love you so

by bothsexuals



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: M/M, Soulmates, i finally went there folks!, like a legit soulmate au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25151545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals
Summary: Everything you draw on your skin also appears on your soulmate's skin. Abed's soulmate has always drawn a lot of stuff. Him, not so much.
Relationships: Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 40
Kudos: 303





	you have made my life complete, and i love you so

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a soulmate au! I don't know why I'm so excited about this, it just feels like a bit of a big deal. Soulmate aus, you know? Anyways, I hope you enjoy this. 
> 
> Title from "Love Me Tender"- specifically I was listening to The Macarons Project cover.

Abed had never been one to write on his skin much, despite the whole finding-your-solmate-through-it debacle. Pen tips felt weird and cold against his skin, and the idea of having ink on him just heightened his anxieties, so he tried to avoid it. 

It wasn’t like he was missing out on a lot anyways, since whatever forces controlled the universe had made the soulmate system incredibly inconvenient, making it impossible to exchange any kind of useful information. The only scrawls that would appear on your soulmate’s skin were doodles, drawings or any word that didn’t give out any information on who you were.

Basically, there was no way to trick fate and find your soulmate before you were meant to. Philosophers and scientists alike had debated over this for centuries, most of them coming to the conclusion that the soulmate bond couldn’t be forced, and recognition was meant to happen at a certain time in a certain way, and not just because people were tired of going through life alone. 

Abed thought it was kind of annoying. If there was really someone out there who was going to love him despite all his flaws and not abandon him or stuff him inside a locker, he’d really like to meet them as soon as possible. 

His soulmate, on the other hand, seemed to love writing on their skin. They always doodled, and Abed could just imagine them bored in class, scrawling on their skin while half-listening to the teacher, or getting distracted while trying to study. They drew flowers, stars, a lot of tiny Spider-Men, wrote lyrics to songs Abed would imagine them listening to over and over. Abed didn’t want to leave them hanging, so he usually responded by scrawling a small smiley face, just to let them know he was enjoying getting to know them a little bit. 

He’d never allowed himself to dream about what his soulmate could be like, hadn’t allowed himself to hope, because he’d learnt from a very young age that hope was dangerous and more often than not led to disappointment, so he’d learnt to be content with the knowledge that one day, if everything went right, he’d find out what it felt like to truly be loved. 

Once he’d started attending Greendale, though, things had changed, despite how hard he tried to keep them the same. He started to hope- no, not hope, never that, but he couldn’t help but dream. He would never admit that out loud, not even to Troy, or actually, especially to Troy, since he was the subject of said dreams. 

He had never been able to catch more than a fleeting glimpse at Troy’s scrawls, he always kept his arms covered -up to his hands in that adorable sweater-paws way, more often than not- and Abed couldn’t help but dream that their drawings would match the ones on his own skin. He kept his covered up too, always wearing a hoodie or a sweater, because what if Troy saw them, and shattered all his dreams of them being the same as his?

He saw Troy scrawl on his arms, though, when the two of them weren’t sitting next to each other in classes. He wasn’t sure why Troy never did it when he was near. He wished he could see what it was he was drawing, and always felt the impulse to take his hoodie off and check his arms to find out whether he’d only been imagining that tingling sensation or not, but he never did. Finding out the truth might break his heart, and the little -god, he had to admit it- hope he had, so he never did. 

One night, he and Troy had been sitting in the almost complete darkness in Abed’s dorm, Troy on the floor, Abed already tucked into bed. Troy didn’t have a sweater on, only a t-shirt, but his arms were completely clean.

(Abed hadn’t written anything on his skin all day, that too-hopeful voice reminded him.)

Abed was hidden almost completely under a blanket, only his head poking out. He wasn’t cold, not at all, he was actually a little too warm, but he enjoyed the feeling of safety.

“Do they draw a lot?” Troy asked out of nowhere, his voice so low that Abed wouldn’t have heard it if not for the complete silence around them, “Your soulmate?” 

“Sometimes,” Abed replied, “I don’t always see it, but when I do, it’s pretty cute stuff.”

Troy hummed. 

“Yours?” Abed asked, more out of duty than anything else, because if he was honest, the thought of possibly finding out information about Troy’s soulmate that proved it couldn’t be him sort of made him sick.

“Not so much,” Troy replied with a shrug, “mostly when I do it.” 

“Oh,” Abed mouthed, and couldn’t help but smile a little. 

Troy didn’t say anything else, so Abed didn’t either, and they melted back into a comfortable silence. 

After a few minutes, Troy picked up a pen and scrawled something on his skin- Abed couldn’t see what, and he wasn’t sure of whether he wanted to. 

“Goodnight,” Troy whispered then, and climbed up to the top bunk. 

“Goodnight, Abed whispered, but his eyes stayed open a while longer- he didn’t know how long, but it was long enough for Troy’s breaths to slow and deepen, a clear sign he had fallen asleep. 

His arm was tingling. 

Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he was just imagining it. 

He sighed, and did something he almost never did since he’d met Troy. He pulled back the blanket and looked at his arm. 

He hadn’t imagined it- right on the spot that he’d felt tingle, a small star with a smiley face inside was drawn. 

He let himself hope for a moment, just this once, and fell asleep with a smile on his lips. 

  


***

  


“Annie,” he asked one day, over the credits of an episode of _Cougar Town_ , “what if your soulmate isn’t who you want them to be?”

“Who do you want it to be?” Annie questioned softly. 

“I think you know,” he whispered in response. 

“Oh.” She sighed, then said, “You could try drawing something. See if it matches, and you’ll be sure.” 

Abed shook his head. “I don’t wanna know,” he mumbled, “I don’t wanna be sure it’s not him. I want to hold onto the dream a little longer.” 

“Alright,” Annie replied, “but maybe you should trust in the universe a little more, Abed.” 

“Why should I?” Abed asked a little sadly, “It hasn’t been very nice to me so far.” 

Annie didn’t reply right away, instead she pulled him into a hug, and he accepted it gladly, resting his head on her shoulder and squeezing her back. 

“It’ll start,” she whispered, “I promise.”

  


***

  


He’d noticed a trend- his soulmate seemed to doodle or write stuff related to things Abed happened to be interested in at the moment. 

He’d done a _Cougar Town_ marathon, and the next day he’d found a little wine glass on his wrist. He and Troy had rewatched the original _Star Wars_ trilogy, and that night he’d found two lightsabers on his ankle.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe soulmates were just always on the same wavelength. He wouldn’t dwell on any other maybes, those were just too far-fetched.

  


***

  


“What if I’m already in love?” 

Annie stopped what she was doing- tidying up his dorm despite his having insisted she didn’t need to- and turned towards him. 

“What?” she asked. 

“What if I’m already in love with someone else by the time I meet my soulmate?” Abed asked again, “That means I’ll stop loving them, won’t it?”

“I guess so,” Annie replied softly, “but it’s not a bad thing, Abed. Your soulmate is supposed to be the best person for you to love, you know?” 

He hummed, considering this. Annie sat beside him, and placed a gentle arm on his shoulder, while he silently stared at his lap. 

“I don’t wanna fall out of love with Troy,” he mumbled dejectedly after a few moments, so quietly he wasn’t sure she’d heard him. "I really like loving him," he continued, "I don't want to love anyone else."

She rested her head on his shoulder and wound her arms around him. She didn’t say anything. What could she say? Neither of them could stop the universe, no matter how hard they tried to.

Abed leaned into her touch, and let himself be comforted anyways. 

  


***

  


Anthropology lessons could get pretty boring when Professor Duncan was too lazy to even put on a video, especially when Abed wasn’t sitting next to Troy. He was a few seats down on the other side of the classroom, and Abed missed him a ridiculous amount. 

He took off his hoodie- the classroom was way too warm for May- and did something he never did, he drew on his arm. Annie, who was sitting beside him, glanced down at the smiley face he had scrawled on and offered him a sweet smile. 

His soulmate responded almost immediately, drawing a bored looking face. 

_Same_ , Abed scrawled on his arm. 

His soulmate drew a sad face, and Abed replied _It’s ok._

_I’ll entertain you_ , his soulmate wrote, and doodles started to appear at a fast pace, building a dumb, funny story that caused Abed to have to stifle a few laughs. 

He didn’t know what possessed him to glance down at Troy, why he felt like he had to, but when he did his heart skipped a beat. 

He was drawing on his arm. He was drawing on his wrist, to be specific, the exact spot Abed felt tingling. He looked down, and sure enough, a line was forming on his wrist. He looked back at Troy, and studied his movements carefully, trying to understand what he could be drawing. A cloud, maybe, or- no, wait, that was a straight line. A flower? 

His heart was going a mile a minute. 

He looked down at his wrist, and sure enough, there was a flower. 

His hand trembled as he picked up his pen again and right below that flower, that beautiful, hopeful flower, wrote _Troy?_

(He wasn’t sure whether the whole inability to exchange information also impeded soulmates from guessing each other’s identity, but hey, it was worth a try.)

Troy looked up at him, and it couldn’t be a coincidence. 

He turned, and quickly wrote something. Abed looked down at his wrist to read it.

_Abed?_

He looked up towards Troy, and found he was already looking back at him.

Abed smiled and gave him a small nod, and the toothy grin Troy gave him in response made his heart explode.

  


***

  


Troy cornered him right after class, and Abed let him take his hand and drag him away to an empty classroom. 

“You’re my soulmate,” Troy muttered, staring right into his eyes. 

“I am,” Abed nodded. “Disappointed?” he couldn't help but ask. He couldn’t really imagine someone being glad to have him as the person the universe chose for them. 

“Not at all,” Troy whispered, and it sounded a lot like awe. “Sometimes I thought-” he shook his head, smiling “-but it was too good to be true.” 

“I really wanted it to be you,” Abed whispered back. He didn’t know why they were whispering, since they were alone in the room, but it felt right. 

“Me too,” Troy replied, looking a little like he was about to cry. He raised a hand slowly- Abed couldn’t help but imagine it in slow-motion -and cupped Abed’s cheek. Abed leaned into the touch, letting out a relieved sigh.

“I love you, Troy,” he said then, low and truthful, “I’m really happy it’s you.” 

“I love you, too,” Troy said, and now he was definitely starting to cry, “and I’m really excited to spend the rest of my life loving you.”

Abed wound his arms around Troy’s waist and pulled him into a hug, which Troy returned right away, nuzzling into the crook of Abed’s neck. 

“Kiss me,” he whispered when he pulled back, his arms still around Abed’s neck.

And Abed did.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this! If you did, please leave me some nice comments and/or kudos, perhaps?


End file.
